PRINCE WENZEL ANTON VON KAUNITZ, Austrian diplomat born (d. 1794); The great Austrian statesman, who single-handedly engineered an alliance between two traditional enemies, Austria and France, was also a bonafide pluperfect eccentric. An arrogant and conceited fop who never tired of talking or of delivering interminable moral sermons (he once chewed Frederick the Great’s ear for over two hours, having exacted from the Prussian king a promise that he not be interrupted), he was one of the great hypochondriacs of all time, refusing ever to allow fresh air within  any of his homes and placing a handkerchief over his mouth whenever venturing without.

Given his extreme aversion to anything physical and his horror of natural body functions, it is hard to believe that he fathered four sons, no less that he was interested in schtupping boys, as contemporary rumors had it.